


veins, blood & pulse

by lesbiansofkyoshi (ranpoandpoe)



Series: A:TLA Femslash Week 2020 [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA Femslash Week, ATLA Femslash Week 2020, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Bloodbender Katara (Avatar), Bloodbending (Avatar), Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Late Night Conversations, Rebels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25828591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranpoandpoe/pseuds/lesbiansofkyoshi
Summary: "...let me crawl inside your veinsI'll build a wall, give you a ball and chainIt's not like me to be so meanYou're all I wantedJust let me hold you"(Billie Eilish)
Relationships: Azula/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: A:TLA Femslash Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1874047
Comments: 12
Kudos: 90





	veins, blood & pulse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Atlaworld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atlaworld/gifts).



> day 1: role swap
> 
> no the fic isn't inspired by the billie eilish song but i guess those lyrics fit??? also i'm very bad at summaried at i've only thought about it now so yeah. i hope you like the au :) let me know what you think!

Azula felt her veins falling out of her control and Zuko next to her seemed to go through the same — although she wished her expression was at least a little bit prettier than his. 

Then, a girl who was about their age appeared from behind the trees. Her eyes were as fierce as Azula wished hers were and the red clothes she wore seemed wildly unnatural for her, but the Fire Nation’s princess judged wilderness as something fitting for her. 

“Who are you?” She asked, with no weapons on her hands, but Azula figured she had everything she needed. 

“We’re…” The word _“princess”_ was on the tip of her tongue, but it suddenly felt wrong. They were no longer royalty. They chose to run away. “I’m Azula and this is my brother, Zuko.”

“The children of Fire Lord Ozai?” She said the name of their father with understandable disdain, then laughed. “I guess it’s my lucky day.”

“Please, let us go!” Zuko screamed and Azula would’ve rolled her eyes if the circumstances were different. As if this request would do anything for them. 

“Hm. I guess I’ll allow myself to be entertained.” The girl decided. “Your kingdom brings hell to my people’s lives by your father’s order. My mother was assassinated by someone who worked under your father’s direct orders. You want me to let you go, so tell me: why should I?” 

_Why should she?_ That was an easy question, but the easy answer wouldn’t get them out of there. 

Because the easy answer was, she shouldn’t. They’d done nothing to gain her trust, neither did their nation. 

“We ran away.” Zuko finally replied. “We don’t agree with our father’s actions and we also suffer in his hands, that’s why… our mom found a way to sneak us out of the Fire Nation. I know we didn’t do anything about our people’s violence before, but that’s what we are trying to do now. Even if a little late…”

“Besides,” Azula interrupted. “You don’t need to let us go. You can just… keep us alive. I know you don’t trust us, but if we’re telling the truth, that’ll help you; if we’re not, we’re still royalty and that’d allow you to make some sort of trade.” 

Of course, Azula’s fascination with strategy paid off. She could see the recognition of logic blending with the anger in the girl’s blue eyes. It was reasonable and she had the advantage: even if they tried to run away, that’d be something impossible to be accomplished with that bending style of hers. 

After a few hesitant seconds, ice handcuffs appeared around the siblings’ wrists and they finally felt their blood flowing naturally again. “Fine. We’re going to have some rules, though. You two walk in front of me, always. You’ll answer _all_ of my questions. You’ll go where I tell you to and do what I tell you to. Understood?” Both nodded. “Good. Now walk. We’ll go forward unless I say something else.”

* * *

“What’s your name?” Azula dared to ask once. Zuko was already asleep and the waterbender was staring at the night sky with no stars, walking into the mysterious maze of her thoughts. 

“Why do you want to know?” 

“I guess I want to know the name of the girl who made my blood stop pumping.” _If I’m not careful, you’ll end up in control of my heart too,_ Azula thought, but didn’t say. 

The girl seemed to think for some seconds and, maybe a late night decision, she decided to actually talk. “My name is Katara, princess.” 

“Katara,” Azula repeated, tasting the southern sound of the name. She liked the salty taste of seawater that came with it. “Having trouble sleeping, Katara?”

“It’s none of your business.” 

“Okay. I just thought that, well, we’re both here alone since my brother is sleeping, and we’re bored to death- at least, I am. So maybe, you’d like to make this trip a little less unbearable. But… I get it. I wouldn’t want to talk to prisoners either.”

“You sound less unbearable than I thought someone from the Fire Nation would be.”

“Well, you sound less unbearable than I thought a kidnapper would be, so I guess we’re even.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. I can still blame it on the lack of sleep.”  
  


“We both can.”

There was an awkward silence after this until Katara (surprisingly) broke it. “How is your mom like?”

“Huh?”

“You heard it. You said earlier that your mom helped the both of you with running away. She sounds… she didn’t sound like someone who’d consciously choose to marry… someone like your father. The Fire Lord. I’m curious.”

“That’s because she didn’t.” Azula took a deep breath, feeling Katara’s gaze upon her. “She was forced by my grandfather. She told us before we left. My mother is the granddaughter of Avatar Roku, and Fire Lord Azulon thought that’d bring power to the lineage or something amongst those lines.”

“I see.” Katara seemed like she wanted to say something else, but was hesitant. All Azula could hear was the sound of their breaths when, again, the waterbender broke the silence. “Tell me about her.”

Although it was technically an order, since Katara had said that they should do everything she said, because they were hostages, this one sounded more like a request. Azula thought she was making this up, but it felt… intimate.

“Her hair is long and dark. She’s tall and gracious, and she used to sing for us to sleep. Her voice was… it was beautiful and calm, but it seemed broken. Just like her face. She’s pretty, but cold. I never understood, until… I’ve talked too much.”

Katara wanted to know more. She was eager to have the most information she could about this poor lady who had her hopes and dreams shattered by the two latest Fire lords. She was Fire Nation, but she was also a victim. She wanted to ask for more, to say she was interested, but that was Azula’s intimacy. Of course, Katara didn’t care for it, no. But asking for more made her feel she owed the princess something; maybe something that she wasn’t willing to give.

They watched as the dark sky slowly faded away to give room to the sunlight, seeing the stars disappearing, something eventful even though both of them knew that they were still there somewhere. They did it in silence and Azula felt safe, but she didn’t _want to._ She was being held hostage by someone who was probably still considering killing her and Zuko! 

But the silence brought her comfort; the presence of someone who didn’t expect her to smile or keep her posture straight, someone with whom she didn’t talk too loudly or the complete opposite, talking too much or too little. And when the Sun gave its first sign of life, she felt powerful. 

It was probably because that was where firebenders got their energy from, but she felt energy running through her veins where Katara’s control was in the day before. A few hours after the sunrise, the waterbender woke up and made sure that Zuko was also awake, and they continued walking forward. 

Katara acted as if their conversation from the night before didn’t happen, so Azula decided to do the same; but she couldn’t help but notice that the hostile comments about the Fire Nation had considerably decreased. 

“Stop smiling, Azula! It’s creepy,” Zuko rolled his eyes.

“Aw, brother, are you in a bad mood?”

“Shut up!” 

Azula’s smile grew wider. Teasing Zuko was one of her biggest pleasures in life and she knew exactly what to do to make him flustered and his cheeks, red like a tomato. “Did you dream about your sweetheart last night? Zuko and Sokka sitting in a-”

Katara suddenly stopped walking and neither of the siblings had seen that coming. “Zuko and _who?!_ ” It was impossible to recognise the emotions in her voice, but Azula still tried: it had a lot of hurt and it sounded like something that shattered. It made her scared, but in a different way than when they’d met: this time, it wasn’t a powerful one that could rebuild the world; it was a broken world that could destroy it.

“Me and my boyfriend…” Zuko finally answered, each word full of hesitation. “Azula loves… teasing me about it.” The last sentence was accompanied by a deathly glare that quickly faded away after he remembered about the main issue at the moment.

“Your boyfriend…” Katara struggled to pronounce the words. “ _Sokka…_ how…” _How is he?_ She wanted to know. How was her older brother doing since their last fight years ago? Was he still unable to not make a joke about everything and was he still as resourceful as she remembered? But instead, she asked, “How do you know Sokka?”

“He…” Zuko hesitated. He didn’t know why the waterbender girl had so much interest in his boyfriend, but he missed talking about Sokka in a context where Azula _wasn’t_ teasing him, so he decided to ignore the red flags his brain was showing. “He’s a part of a group that antagonises our father’s imperialist government. I… knew people who were secret agents at the castle and I asked h- _them_ to take me one day.”

“Your mother.” Katara pointed out. 

“How did you…”

“Continue.” Azula ordered, knowing that the details were unimportant and that Katara wouldn’t want to share their conversation with Zuko. 

“Right. Um… I started attending frequently, and his ideas were… very good. I liked the way his mind worked, so I tried to get courage to talk to him one day. We started talking, and he started running his plans by me before introducing them to the rest of the bunch, since I had insider information, and we started… meeting a lot… and one day, we started dating.”

“Sokka. I… I miss him.” She seemed to have doubts about it, but those vanished in seconds. “I miss him. You.” Katara pointed at Zuko. “Do you know where to find him?”

“Just… um… he’s mine now?! Are you the princess of the tribe…?”

“What-? No!” Katara took a deep breath. What had she done to deserve this? Okay, she’d killed a few soldiers from the Fire Nation, but her recently found brother-in-law thinking she was Sokka’s pretty first girlfriend, that was a way more severe punishment for her crimes. “Listen, I’m his sister. We fought, because he disagreed with my methods of… anyway. We’ve been apart for years, I haven’t heard of him since he left.”

“You’re… oh…”

“Zuko knows where to find him,” Azula interrupted, because she knew that her brother wouldn’t be slightly functional in a while. “When he gets overwhelmed, he always goes to your brother’s place. He can take you there.”

“No. We’re not going to the Fire Nation.” Katara took a few seconds to think about it. “At least, not the capital. If you know how to contact him, then we’ll send him a letter. Tell him to meet us somewhere outside.”

Grabbing paper and ink out of her bag, Katara handed those to Zuko, who quickly held the material, words overflowing.

* * *

The trip was long, but the three of them finally got to a relatively safe little town in the Fire Nation, away from the capital. In a disguise, Katara contacted a delivery service the royal siblings said they could trust and it was done: the letter had been signed, revised, sealed, and sent.

“If this is a trap,” Katara threatened, slowly, but utterly terrifying. “Or if Sokka gets hurt in any way, you’re dead. Both of you. Understood?”

Azula wasn’t one to feel intimidated, but at that moment, she felt a shiver down her spine. She had finally found someone who matched her intensity and at this point, she was so impressed and attracted to the waterbender that she’d marry her tomorrow. 

After stealing a few common clothes from the Fire Nation to avoid standing out, the trio settled down at the cave they’d meet with Sokka (Zuko was sure that he’d know exactly where they were, and Katara wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask why.) Luckily, the weather was hot, so they wouldn’t struggle a lot without coats, blankets and such. 

Meanwhile, Azula had been holding her urge to compliment Katara’s Fire Nation outfit for minutes. She wasn’t one for flattery, but there was a certain intensity in the color red that suited her really well. Also, a contrast between her usual blue clothes that obligated everyone to pay attention. Not that she hadn’t Azula’s attention before, of course.

“You look…” The princess accidentally let out and now Katara was already facing her, curious about what she had to say. “That’s… really sharp. Be careful, because you could puncture the hull of an empire class Fire Nation battleship… leaving thousands to drown at the sea… because… it’s _so sharp._ ”

And surprisingly, for the first time, Katara giggled. “That would be useful, princess. But I think our chances would be better with this.” The waterbender then suddenly created a knife made of ice with her sweat. Needless to say that Azula became even _more_ impressed.

The days inside the cave were surprisingly easy: Zuko had always slept easily, which left her and Katara alone at night. The waterbender had opened up to her during that time, giving her childhood memories and feelings when her brother wasn’t present and stolen laughs under the sheets and the moonlight. 

Azula already knew that Katara’s bending skills were mostly self taught and that, despite being the younger sibling, she had always felt responsible for Sokka, while Katara already knew about her best friends, Ty Lee and Mai, and her strict father.

So, when Sokka walked into the cave wearing traditional Fire Nation clothing, Azula already knew about Katara’s speech habits, her adventures throughout the other nations, probably even more than he did.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again-!” The exclamation in Sokka’s voice gradually toned down when his eyes were no longer on Zuko. “Katara.”

“Sokka.” The waterbender had bitten her tongue several times, too many times for too little seconds. Why was it still so hard to say, even after all those days she’d been thinking about that exact scenario? Not exact: she didn’t think he’d already look so… from the Fire Nation. But his blue eyes and dark skin didn’t lie, he was still from the Water Tribe, no matter how pale. But still. “I… I’m sorry. I missed you.”

His face was as cold as stone this whole time, something strange for him. It felt weird for Katara, not knowing how to read his expression. Luckily enough, Sokka couldn’t hold on for much longer: his arms quickly found their way to Katara, embracing her in a hug. With his head on her shoulder, he let out a tear. He didn’t want her to see it. “I didn’t think I’d see you again, either.”

“I know I have to hug you enough to compensate for the years we’ve been apart, but this needs to be addressed,” Katara said, interrupting the hug. “You’re dating _the prince of the Fire Nation?!”_

Sokka then proceeded to smile like an idiot as Zuko blushed. “I know, right?! What a catch…” He pointed at his boyfriend while he stepped closer to him and kissed his cheek. “By the way, my prince here said in the letter that you’re keeping them hostage? So, what’s up with that?”

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me!” Katara then walked and put her and Azula’s lips together. It was quick, but enough to make the firebender’s face match the color of her clothes. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. Oh, and no, the both of you aren’t hostages anymore. I was just waiting to see if Sokka was really going to come over here and confirm everything. That erases my doubts.”

When Zuko opened his mouth to tease Azula, she pointed at him. “You. I didn’t forget about that _‘my prince’_. So shut up and kiss your boyfriend a little, I’ll deal with you later.”

(After sixteen kisses for the two of them, Azula did deal with him.)

**Author's Note:**

> you may find me on twitter as @yukisayochisas


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